I grinned. Jokes aside, I really couldn’t fulfill their demands by fully disclosing my profile. To hell with the archetype and the sword’s abilities — the Watchers already knew a lot about that. Too many things in my logs were bound to raise eyebrows: the Colossus, Ananizarte, the Guardian, Svechkin, the Succubate, the Silver Stronghold... Too much was at stake.
“Cat, you must realize, this is a question of our survival!” Komtur said. “Somehow, you managed to jack a juggernaut and blow it up. We want to know everything!”
“Well, actually, his method’s pretty obvious,” Olaf spoke up. “He used Bells, and I suggest we borrow this tactic. Let’s load boats with bombs and send them against heavy targets.”
“This is a non-starter,” Mook said, brushing him off. “The heavy ships will never make it — they’ll get shot down in the air. They’ll never pierce a juggernaut’s shield, either. Only a few explosions in a row might, but this is unreal.”
“HotCat can remove the shield with his Blazing Warrior,” the Prophet insisted.
“So you suggest we plan our tactics around a single player?” the Enemy clan leader snorted. “A newbie whose abilities we don’t fully know and whose profile we haven’t seen? All of this smells like a trap!”
“If you want to fight an enemy like the Pandas,” he continued after a pause, “then you need an awesome idea on how to defeat them instead of betting on a dark horse who might easily be someone’s spy.”
“The Pandas do have spies in the alliance,” I agreed. “But it’s not me. You’re searching in the wrong place. You should look closer to the top.”
“In short, I suggest we focus on persuading our allies,” Evil Mook said, turning away to the other clan leaders. “We need numbers, now, or the Pandas will wipe the floor with us.”
“We’re gathering a carebear militia,” Crow spoke up, grim. “Many have already joined up. They have no skill or training, but they’ll serve as cannon fodder.”
“These guys simply have no idea what they’re in for,” Komtur said, curling his lips. “They’ll scatter after a few battles. Been there, done that.”
“Token from the Wild Field contacted me,” Black Don, the leader of Unity, whom I knew from my early adventures, said. “The Pandas are securing the edges of the field, and it unnerves him. He wants to fight.”
“The one who whipped all of the local bandits into shape?” Mook raised an eyebrow, skeptical. “Really? And how many people can they send?”
“I think four or five hundred, easily,” Don warily replied.
“We won’t refuse any help right now. Let them come.”
I let out a quiet cough, making the clan leaders turn to face me.
“You mentioned an idea that would allow us to defeat them,” I said. “I have something that might help, but there’s a catch. Don’t ask me where I found it, and promise me to keep it secret.”
With that, I pulled out one of the Veil amulets from my inventory and put it on the table in front of them. Evil Mook picked it up by the chain and peered into the glowing blue gem, then shook his head, passing the Veil to Komtur.
“It’s a nifty trinket. I’ve never seen it before,” he remarked. “Invisibility in flight. A quest reward? But one amulet, no matter how unique, can’t win a war.”
“One can’t. What about a thousand?” I smirked.
* * *
Combat started as soon as the first outposts of the Northern Alliance left defensive mode. The resulting battles were so fierce that reconstructing the chronology was a challenge. For many players, it became a twenty-hour-long fight starting with the first checkpoints. There were no pauses, and the action never stopped as thousands of fighters leaped at each other like mad dogs. Skirmishes broke out across the front, and one checkpoint followed another in a never-ending slaughter. Players died, respawned, and returned to battle, only to die again. I struggle to describe the emotional intensity and violence of those battles; I had never seen anything like that in Sphere.
I still remember how we banded together and waited for our enemies on the walls of the first Heroes’ outpost, fourteen hundred people split into two raids. The invincibility timer was counting down its last minutes, and the dome was about to vanish. Everyone was silent, our knees shaking — after all, it was our first clash against the unbeatable Pandorum.
And Pandorum came. As the last seconds ticked away, our scouts started sending Courier reports about the approaching enemy.
Inker: They’re coming. I can see seven...ten...fourteen pentagrams opening up!
Immoral: Astral Portal beacons detected! Signals...many signals! They’re blending together.
Evil Mook: I need details. How many?
We could already see a half-circle of pentagrams flashing into being. An army of players burst out of them, followed by a ceaseless torrent of birdies. Swirling rainbow portals lit up in the air, their number beyond reckoning. Astral ships came out of them, and the sky turned dark as hundreds of sails blotted out the sun. We knew that our enemies would have superior numbers...but that many?
Komtur: They didn’t roll out the juggernauts. Saving them for a rainy day, I guess.
Evil Mook: I can see that. Is there a numbers report?
Abel: In short, there are three hundred and fourteen ships, including twenty heavy galleons. About twenty-five hundred Pandas onboard, plus fourteen support groups ranging from one to three hundred, their allies. Almost six thousand in total.
Komtur: So it’s five to one plus the ships. What do we have?
Evil Mook: Our balls.
That was the phrase that set off the endless battle that would enter the chronicles of Sphere as the Battle for the
